Conventional rod belts for rod belt conveyors for agricultural machinery have a design as disclosed in DE 195 20 927 A1. These types of rod belts have two or more tensile stress-resistant, elastic, continuous belts extending in parallel which are connected to one another by a plurality of parallel rods arranged transversely with respect to the running direction of the rod belt. For fixing the rods to the belts, the rods have flattened, perforated support areas with which they rest on the belts. The support areas are connected to the belts by rivets or similar fastening means which pass through the support area and the belts.
The support areas are produced by forging, by beating round bars flat at their ends. This is carried out at temperatures of 800° to 900° C., and thus requires a high level of energy input. In addition, the purchase of forging presses requires a large capital expenditure. After the forging, the end of the rod must also be quenched and tempered again in order to restore the original material properties of the round rod, in particular the high wear resistance. Furthermore, the forging of the rod ends is subject to large process-related tolerances, which adversely affects the belt precision.
A rod belt of the generic kind is described in DE 200 11 436 U1. In this rod belt, the rods at their ends are not directly connected to the belts, but instead are each connected via a fastening piece. The fastening pieces are produced by forging from a solid rod. The fastening pieces have a flattened, perforated support area which merges into a fastening area for the rod ends via a bend. The fastening area is formed by a cylindrical sleeve extending in the longitudinal direction of the rods, or by a corresponding blind hole. The rods are made of plastic, and are fixed in the sleeves by jamming. The fastening pieces lie with their support areas on the top side of the belts, and are fastened to the belts by rivets.